The Irish Womens’ Soccer Team Fiasco April 4, 2017

There was a press conference this morning in Liberty Hall held by The Irish International Womens’ Soccer Team outlining their poor treatment and their demands.
Their demands seem perfectly reasonable and are as follows …..
-Access to nutritionist, and individual strength and conditioning programmes.
Gym membership for squad.
-Hotel accommodation to include at the very least working and reliable WiFi.
-Apparel for travelling to be provided to the squad prior to meeting up at airport.
-More home-based training sessions.
-All non-professional players to receive loss of earnings documented from their employers.
-Goalkeeper coach to remain for campaign, not change from game to game.
-Match fee for all international fixtures of €300.
-Bonus for competitive fixtures of €150 per win and €75 per draw.
-Qualification bonus to be agreed with team captain and player representatives at least four weeks prior to start of qualification campaign.

They approached the PFAI to represent them last September but the FAI have refused to deal with the PFAI. The whole thing stinks.
The Press Conference made quite a splash this morning and of course it so happens that a certain Mr Delaney is due a hefty pay rise soon.
You’d wonder if this will all blow over or as has been suggested, the various sponsors of the FAI being asked to make statements on what they think of the treatment of the International Womens team?

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It’s going to be difficult to justify giving Delaney a pay rise (or even his existing pay) when the Womens’ team have to share tracksuits. As for the money they’re looking for, they can hardly be accused of over-reaching.

Don’t know what all the fuss is about.In my youth my local GAA team( one of the best in Ireland at the time)played on a pitch that cattle had been on the day before.They togged out behind the hedge and slid through cows shite for the entire match.Their tracksuit was their Sunday clothes and the entire team would have spent half time smoking.This from a team that won 8 county championships,2 ulsters and an all ireland in a period from approx 1960 – 1972!

My kid drifted from the GAA to soccer over the last few years. In 2/3 years with the GAA I was constantly discovering wonderful clubhouses hidden away in parts of Dublin I had thought I knew. In 3years with soccer, we have not once (literally) played anywhere with a clubhouse. Just public pitches.

Yeah, I think the GAA clubs are in general far more rooted in the community. There are exceptions of course.
Certainly at underage level in Soccer players can change team every year and often do, so there is little or no continuity with a club from players and of course parents too. If you are going from 6 to 18 with the same parents on the sideline you tend to get to know an awful lot of people at the club and in turn get involved in the club yourself.

It seems to be an old fashioned union recognition struggle at its core. FAI saying they’ve never dealt with PFAI. Stephanie Roche was very good on the news earlier.
This could qualify as a sign of hope yet.